Translated material
Dirty dancing
“United Russia” and “A Just Russia” are sorting things out with the help of the prosecutor’s office
The conflict between United Russia and A Just Russia, which began with a fight in Mineralnye Vody, continues to flare up. Yesterday, prosecutors and State Duma deputies got involved in the case.Last Monday in Mineralnye Vody, the mayor of Stavropol Dmitry Kuzmin, who heads the regional branch of A Just Russia, met with voters at the House of Culture of Railway Workers. There were about 600 people in the hall. Suddenly, hooligans from the back rows shouted “Kuzmina on the bunk!” they began throwing eggs and bags of dirt at the mayor. Before reaching the target, these objects fell on the heads of the pensioners sitting in the front rows. Some eyewitnesses claimed that the youths were wearing T-shirts of the Young Guard , the youth structure of United Russia.
Immediately after the incident, the leader of A Just Russia, Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, made a harsh statement: “This “great” party, I mean United Russia, fearing defeat, hires its own Red Guards, who deal with helpless pensioners.” According to Mr. Mironov, one of the pensioners was even stabbed. The speaker promised to contact the Prosecutor General's Office and provide a recording of the speech.
The news of the attack became a sensation, because until now representatives of the two parties in power had only exchanged caustic remarks about each other , without resorting to the help of fists. One could assume that the “Young Guards” in their own way understood the president’s words about the relationship between “United Russia” and “A Just Russia”, voiced at his recent press conference: “In general, I consider this fight to be correct, principled, the sharper it is , the better." However, the leaders of the Young Guard hastened to disassociate themselves from the hooligans and accused the mayor of Stavropol of “crossbow shooting” in order to discredit young United Russia members.
“This is a vile provocation against the Young Guard of United Russia.” “A Just Russia is trying to artificially increase its rating with this scam,” reads a statement released on Monday evening by the party’s youth policy coordinator, member of the Young Guard’s coordination and political councils, Andrei Turchak. He also quotes a statement from local “Young Guards”: “We are absolutely sure that the provocation was organized by the A Just Russia party.” This fact can be confirmed by the words of Kuzmin himself, who on the eve of the meeting let slip to several people that he expected a scandal during the meeting, and even drew a rough scenario. It turns out that Kuzmin knew about the impending action... Also, indirect evidence that the provocation was staged by the A Just Russia party can be considered the sharply increasing number of recent attempts to steal or buy clothes and symbols of the Young Guard.
Stavropol “Young Guards” also recall that they were recently bombarded by representatives of A Just Russia during a picket. “Apparently, using the usual “arsenal”, the Just Russians staged the current provocation,” the authors of the statement suggest.
On the same day, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, Chairman of the Commission on the North Caucasus Vladimir Katrenko also hinted at the possible involvement of A Just Russia in the incident: “There is reason to believe that this conflict was provoked by an act on the part of those political forces that cannot otherwise win over voters."
And yesterday, while Sergei Mironov was celebrating his birthday, more than 50 State Duma deputies from among United Russia members signed an appeal to the Prosecutor General of Russia with a request to consider the issue of bringing Dmitry Kuzmin to criminal liability for slander against his party. Thus, United Russia managed to appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office before A Just Russia.
One of the deputies who signed the letter, Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, Vladimir Pligin, commented on the situation to Vremya Novostei: “It is regrettable that already in the early stages of the election campaign there are people who are trying to use the campaign to implement their dirty manifestations, in particular, of those who turn off the lights and, even more so, throw dirt at the auditorium.” All participants in the electoral process must demonstrate a dignified, respectful, calm, of course not devoid of criticism and sometimes sharp attitude towards their political opponents.
“When taking any actions in the political field,” notes Vladimir Pligin, “we need to remember that everyone’s interests should be focused on the stable progressive development of society, and the struggle in the political field should be absolutely civilized in nature. And even more so, it is necessary to avoid unfounded accusations that are hasty and offensive.”
The confrontation between the two parties at the regional level is expressed in the conflict between the mayor of Stavropol Dmitry Kuzmin and the Stavropol governor Alexander Chernogorov, who recently joined United Russia. Yesterday, Mr. Kuzmin made a statement on local television in which he accused Mr. Chernogorov of “hiding criminals and stealing.” He announced that the fight in the railway worker’s recreation center was organized “under the cover of the police.” The mayor also noted that the upcoming elections to the regional Duma will essentially become elections for governor.
Meanwhile, the Mineralnye Vody prosecutor's office has already opened a criminal case for hooliganism. Prosecutor Ivan Afanasov said that the hooligans’ actions did not have the scale reported by the A Just Russia party, and “there were no cases of the use of force, especially no one was injured.”
President of the Institute for Strategic Assessments Alexander Konovalov, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, suggested that the struggle between the two parties would only intensify by the federal elections: “In fact, the presidential administration intended this to be a struggle between the Nanai boys. “A Just Russia” appeared as a kind of clone of “United Russia”, designed to pick up the votes of those voters who were already sick of “United Russia”. There was no real fight planned here, but things don't go according to plan. After all, the number of seats in any legislative assemblies and in power in general is limited, but there are a lot of people who want to get there. Therefore, the struggle intensified, especially at the local level. Although both are parties of the bureaucracy, they do not differ in anything special in the field of ideology. I’m almost sure that if this has started now, then in the Duma and presidential elections the struggle will be life and death, with all the dirty technologies.”